Book Review 1: Phantom by H.D. Carlton

Good evening y'all! Or maybe good night? Or good morning? I am writing this past 12am, so idk what to say, but HELLO!!! I've decided to start writing book reviews on books that I have finished reading. After I write and post this, I'll be writing a mix of book reviews of recently read books. Like probably the ones I have written down in my book journal recently. ANYWAYYYY, in a way this may just end up me rambling about this book ^^'. 

                                                         SPOILER WARNING

For my first book review, I'll be talking about the book Phantom by H.D. Carlton. 

So, for starters, if you're an active member in the current hype of books or BookTok, you may have heard of H.D. Carlton and one of her many other books. One of her most popular ones that I've also read is Haunting Adeline. (I'll write a review on that book too, later.) Anyway, H.D. Carlton is a very popular author with books aimed towards younger audiences. I enjoy her writing style a lot; it's very different from books that I've read before. When I first started reading her books, it was easy for me to adjust and get into her style of writing. 

Anyway, let's get into the book itself!

"What's your name?" I ask breathlessly
"Ronaldo"
"Do you want to hurt me, Ronaldo?"
"Never," He answers. "I only want to cherish you, Genevieve."
"How do you know my name?"
"I know everything about you. Just as I know you will love me, too."
- A quote from the book.

As seen above, this is the cover of the book. There are two covers that this book has so far. Both covers are really nice, but I like this one more because it allows me to actually be able to picture what the two main characters look like. 

This book is also technically a prequel to Haunting Adeline in a way, the FMC (Female Main Character) is the great-grandmother of the FMC in Haunting Adeline. 

Let's start from the beginning, in the 1940s. You have Genevieve Parsons, an ordinary woman who is married to John Parsons with one kid, Sera. Genevieve tends to go by Gigi, so that's what I'll be calling her, LOL. Gigi is your typical housewife who has a love for reading, writing in her journal, and a love for anything gothic, which inspires her house, Parsons Manor. Now, throughout the book, Gigi talks about how there are spirits in the house, which makes sense when you are reading Haunting Adeline. (IFYKYK) 

On the other side, you have Ronaldo (Our MMC, Male Main Character). Ronaldo is a part of the mafia, which, as you can guess, means he has a pretty dangerous life. But he works for the biggest mafia gang that's in Seattle at the time. 

So, Gigi's husband John is an alcoholic and has a gambling addiction, which leads to him being in a lot of debt, which risks them ending up homeless. Gigi fears this for her daughter and slowly starts falling out of love with her husband (makes sense). John isn't the best either, like worst character ever, he does very unholy stuff as well. All this gambling also leads John into the mafia, the same one Ronaldo is in.

Now it's been a while since I started reading this book, so I don't remember how Gigi and Ronaldo end up meeting, but Ronaldo starts to stalk Gigi. He starts out watching her from afar, then slowly starts coming into her house when John and Sera are away. Starting to come into the house, he doesn't talk to Gigi, but over time, he does start talking. 

The two start to slowly fall in love, but for Ronaldo, it was love at first sight (he thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world). Gigi slowly falls for him. After a while of them starting to get to know each other, they started to do the hanky panky together A LOT. 

So Gigi starts having an affair with John, but she doesn't feel bad about it since her husband is the worst. Eventually, she finds out John is working with the mafia to pay off his debt, she doesn't like it at all, and is still seeing Ronaldo.

The book is in both MC (main characters) POV, so we can see them together and separately. We also see what Gigi writes in her Journal during the book. It ends with Gigi and Ronaldo taking a weekend getaway, and it's actually super cute after Hanky Panky happens. We also get a bonus scene with the two MCs of Haunting Adeline, which I was super happy about. It showed Adeline (FMC of Haunting Adeline) seeing the spirits of Gigi and Ronaldo slow dancing in the living room, it was super cute. 

Ok, so now that I've summarized the book, time for my thoughts!

Overall, it was a good book. Before it came out, I thought it was going to lead up to Gigi's death, because we find out that she was murdered in Haunting Adeline. I was fully prepared to bawl my eyes out. Instead, I found myself reading a simple  1940s mafia love story (that's what imma call it).

It mostly focused on Gigi's and Ronaldo's love story, and how Gigi was seeing him behind her husband's back, and whatnot. We also got to see Ronaldo actually doing his job and how the mafia he was in ran. I thought it was a very nice change after reading Haunting Adeline. It wasn't a super dark story with a little plot. Yes, there were spicy scenes in it, but it wasn't the center of the story. 

It was also good to see how Gigi was finding out more about herself when she was with Ronaldo. She basically settled down with John, and once she met Ronaldo, she started to discover herself. I do wish that there was a little more leading up to her Death, maybe there will be a 2nd book, who knows. 

I'll be rating this book 4/5 Stars 

I think that's everything I wanna say about the book. If you read all of this, thank you for reading! I hope ya'll will stay tuned because I plan on writing more book reviews as I read and finish more books. I'm trying to read 10 books this year on my own (not for school either), and this was book 2 that I finished.

Thanks for reading. See ya!